Hex-Edge: Requiem of a Fractured Swordsman

Moonlight bled through the trees as Lin Wufeng trekked down the mountain path. Inside his mind, the six voices bickered:

"Must you deliberate like some scholar?" Li Feng spat.

"The Shadowguard butchered an entire village last month," Jing Xin countered. "Caution isn't cowardice."

A twig snapped.

Lin Wufeng's sword cleared its sheath before his conscious mind registered the threat.

"Impressive reflexes." A man materialized from the darkness, black robes swirling like liquid shadow. The silver dagger at his belt bore the Netherworld Sect's sigil—a serpent coiled around a crescent moon.

"Ying Sha." Lin Wufeng's knuckles whitened on his hilt. The Shadowguard's most elusive assassin.

"Our Patriarch finds you... intriguing." Ying Sha's smile revealed teeth filed to points. "Join us. The Tome's secrets could be yours."

Li Feng surged forward: "Let me handle this—"

Lin Wufeng wrested back control. "I don't consort with butchers."

Ying Sha's dagger flashed. Steel shrieked as their blades met.

The assassin fought like smoke—there one moment, gone the next. Yet Lin Wufeng's swordwork shifted unpredictably: one second Li Feng's brutal hacks, the next Jing Xin's precise counters.

"You're madder than they say," Ying Sha panted after twenty exchanges, his sleeve hanging shredded.

With a snarl, the assassin split into three identical phantoms—the Netherworld's infamous Mirage Technique.

Lin Wufeng barely dodged two strikes before the third dagger bit into his shoulder. Blood warmed his robes.

"Pathetic," Li Feng jeered as Lin Wufeng staggered. "Let me—"

"No." Lin Wufeng closed his eyes.

When they reopened, his stance solidified like bedrock. The sword in his hands no longer felt like metal, but the weight of a mountain.

Ying Sha barely raised his dagger before the Mountain-Cleaving Strike hit. The shockwave sent the assassin crashing against a pine, needles raining down as he fled.

Inside Lin Wufeng's mind, Jing Xin sighed: "You used the forbidden technique."

Li Feng laughed: "And it felt glorious."

Wiping blood from his lips, Lin Wufeng gazed at the path ahead. The Netherworld Sect would return.

This time, he'd be ready.